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The government has frozen requests to commercially release a locally developed Genetically Modified mustard, an environment ministry document released on Tuesday showed, amid stiff opposition to lab-altered food from domestic activists and politicians.
The mustard variety would have been the first transgenic food crop to be allowed for commercial cultivation. But the Environment Ministry’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has deferred approval despite a panel the Ministry supervises giving the Genetically Modified (GM) mustard technical clearance last year.
“Subsequent to receipt of various representations from different stakeholders, matters related to environmental release of transgenic mustard are kept pending for further review,” the GEAC said in minutes of a meeting put on the ministry website, marked “confidential and restricted circulation”.
Cotton is the only GM crop currently allowed to be sold in India, where arable land is shrinking. US company Monsanto dominates the cotton seed market here, and often faces resistance from local companies over its position.
The Environment Ministry told Parliament on July 31 that GM mustard had been recommended by GEAC to it for “consideration for environmental release and cultivation”. A ministry spokesman directed Reuters to GEAC head Amita Prasad, whose office said she was not available. Another GEAC official named on the ministry’s website, Madhumita Biswas, did not respond to requests for comment.
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